title: Lung cancer treated on the basis of cytologic findings: an analysis of 112 patients.
abstract: The authors studied 112 patients who received definitive radiotherapy/chemotherapy solely on the basis of positive cytologic findings in the appropriate clinical context. Eighty patients (71.4%) were treated on the basis of one or more positive sputum studies, while the remainder had at least one positive bronchial cytologic preparation. Eighty-six patients (76.3%) received radiotherapy alone; 19 received both radiotherapy and chemotherapy; only 7 were exclusively given chemotherapy. The utilization of stringent verification criteria revealed that none of our patients was falsely positive for malignancy. For those patients categorized as having malignant disease by verification criteria I-IV, there were no significant disparities between histologic and cytologic diagnoses. This study demonstrated, in a systematic fashion, that patients can be reliably and definitively treated for lung cancer on the basis of positive respiratory cytology findings without tissue corroboration.
authors.affiliation: Department of Pathology, Medical College of Wisconsin, Milwaukee 53226.
authors.forename: J G
authors.initials: JG
authors.lastname: Caya
authors.forename: L
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Gilles
authors.forename: T M
authors.initials: TM
authors.lastname: Tieu
authors.forename: K
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Murray
authors.forename: L J
authors.initials: LJ
authors.lastname: Clowry
authors.forename: N J
authors.initials: NJ
authors.lastname: Wollenberg
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D000369:Aged, 80 and over; D001980:Bronchi / Q000473:pathology*; D001999:Bronchoscopy; D003581:Cytodiagnosis; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008175:Lung Neoplasms / Q000175:diagnosis* / Q000188:drug therapy / Q000532:radiotherapy; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D013183:Sputum / Q000166:cytology*